Monday, 4 December 2017

WALKER’S RAZOR SLIM SHOOTER - Electronic Ear Pro

While a candidate on the Urban Operations Instructor course, I found the need
for electronic ear protection. For those who have never used them, it provides
greater situational awareness on the range and in a shoot house as you can
clearly hear everything going on around you while louder noises are drowned
out.

The variety of electronic ear pro worn by students on course ranged from Peltor
Tactical series to the Howard-Leight Impact Sport. I borrowed a friend’s
Peltor’s for most of the course until I decided to invest in a well-serving
pair of my own ear protection.

Sold at Canadian tire for $89.99 CDN, the Walker’s Razor
Slim caught my eye. At a fraction of the cost of Peltor’s, I was curious on how
they performed and the reviews I found online seemed to back up a promising
product. They have a Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) of 23 decibels while using a
sound activated compression (SAC) of 0.02 seconds.

Luckily, the following Monday the course was moving into our live fire shoot
house phase which provided a perfect opportunity to test Walker’s product.

For those who may have used Peltor’s before the first noticeable difference is
that the Walker’s aren’t as sensitive to noises and the hearing quality is
magnified up to five times. The down side of the magnified sound is that it is
extremely difficult to discern the direction of the noise and it almost sounds
as though you are in a studio. Otherwise the sound is crisp and impressive. You
can hear whispering, buckles being clicked together and other such small
noises. Being in Gagetown in the fall of course meant less than ideal weather
and high winds were present which, unfortunately for the ear pro review,
resulted in most sounds being undiscernible and I could only hear the wind in
the microphones. However, once in the shoot house, and blocked from the wind,
my situational awareness was much higher as I could hear every command, prompt,
and warnings from my stack even from two to three rooms away.

The ear pro requires two AAA batteries which are included in the original
packaging. The battery access is on the outside of one ear cup which makes it
much easier to change batteries quickly. The volume control is located on the
left ear cup and controls both sides, as well as having an auxiliary jack
should you want to plug in a music player or cell phone.

My greatest apprehension about the Walker’s was the padded
overhead strap and how it would fit under the issued Kevlar helmet as well as
the thickness of the ear cups and whether they would fit under the helmet’s
convex ear portions. Rest assured that they do fit under a Canadian Kevlar, although a bit snug. I should mention that I tested them while wearing helmet
pads and not the issued suspension system, I believe due to the size of the ear
cups that the suspension system may push them lower on the wearer’s cheeks
which could potentially prevent one from having a proper cheek position on the
butt of their weapon. The Walker’s were comfortable to wear for over an hour
and never lost their seal. Unlike other products on the market, they also
didn’t cause any pressure on the temple while wearing eye protection.

Overall, I am extremely pleased on this purchase and would
rate them 4.5/5. Anyone looking to replace or upgrade their hearing protection
should consider trying out Walker’s Razor Slim Shooter ear muffs

-RL

RL is a serving Regular Force Infantry Officer with
operational experience in Afghanistan as a Convoy Operations Platoon Commander.
He has held various positions in line and staff units.

Usual Suspects

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